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Lottery
The Lottery is often called a stupid tax. Links * Gambling Media * State lottery could lose big to slots The Morning Call Online - Seniors who benefit from revenue would be the ones to suffer if ticket sales decrease. * For seniors, slots might pay off Pittsburgh Tribune-Review by Andrew Conte, June 26, 2006, * thumb|300px|right Temp Many PA residents and seniors play the slots at Mountaineer Race Track & Gaming Resort in Chester, W.Va. Mountaineer's typical slots player is between 55 and 64. Allegheny County has the nation's second-highest concentration of senior citizens. Gambling gets seniors out of the house and keeps their minds sharp, social scientists said. It's just that people on fixed incomes need to keep in mind how much they can afford to gamble. Seniors end up at casinos more often is they have more time on their hands. They also tend to have fewer legal problems and are less likely to smoke -- partially because they're the survivors among their peers. More In several states, the arrival of casino gambling was followed by sagging lottery sales, and that was followed by new lottery games designed to mimic casino gambling. :* Michigan added keno :* Illinois marketed its instant tickets :* Iowa installed video lottery terminals that look similar to slots Pennsylvania state officials say the lottery will not suffer when 14 casinos open statewide. Obviously slots aren't intended to compete with the lottery, and there's no reason to believe they will, said Steve Kniley, press secretary for the state Department of Revenue. … We're satisfied that there will be no impact. * Pennsylvania made roughly $850 million in lottery revenues in 2005 * PA's lottery funds prescription drugs, community centers, free bus rides, meals for seniors. * Fears: Gambling vs. Lottery * Michigan's lottery increased 30 percent over four years before casinos opened, then lottery sales declined 2 percent over the next four years. Michgan's Club Keno began, now in more than 2,000 Michigan bars and restaurants. Lottery sales climbed again. Revenues jumped 17 percent the first year, and in 2006, the state will post another record at more than $2.2 billion — a 34 percent increase since 2003. Mix in Video lottery terminals Iowa in 1995 major riverboat casino gambling began and lottery sales plummeted. Sales of pull tab and scratch tickets declined by 25 percent in areas within 30 miles of a casino. Iowa's $200 million annual lottery revenue dropped 10 percent in 1996. In 2005, Iowa Lottery placed video lottery terminals at more than 2,600 bars, restaurants, convenience stores and grocery stores. After taking nearly a decade to regain the 10 percent it lost when the casinos opened, the video lottery terminals were projected to bring in another $120 million in 2006, and $188 million in 2007 — a 90 percent increase over 2005. As video lottery terminals were raking in record profits, the Iowa Legislature outlawed them and four more casinos will open in northern Iowa this year. State income from Iowa casinos go into the general fund Michigan and Missouri casino and lottery money goes into education. Delaware and West Virginia consider lottery and slot machine funds in the same revenue pool. Pennsylvania lottery funds pay for senior citizen programs * senior centers, prescription drugs, free meals and mass transit Casino tax revenue is slated to reduce property taxes. * ha, ha, ha. * Crystal Lowe, executive director of the Pennsylvania Association of Area Agency on Aging. More than $850 million in PA lottery proceeds went to senior programs last year. A 10 percent decline, such as Iowa's small lottery experienced, would be a loss of $85 million for senior citizen programs in Pennsylvania. That's why a position paper written by the statewide agency has requested that some of the casino revenue be used to replace lottery losses. Pennsylvania's gambling law does not grant that request, but it could be written into later amendments. I'm very worried about the casinos. There's only so much money to go around, Lowe said. Any loss in lottery funds would be devastating. Arizona had no loss in lottery sales when its casinos opened on Indian reservations. Delaware lottery growth was stunted, but not with an expected 15 percent loss after casinos opened at horse-racing tracks. Lottery sales increased for some lottery games in West Virginia. WV lots gambling is regulated by the state lottery system. In the past four years under Gov. Ed Rendell, the lottery has added more than 1,400 locations statewide, helping to drive up sales, but it has no plans to add games to compete with the arrival of casino gambling. The lottery isn't going to do anything different than it has done the past four years, Kniley said. Some Pennsylvania casinos are to be strategically placed in convenient population zones. No state has ever tried to put 37,000 slot machines into play at once, which Pennsylvania hopes to do. Lotto Merchants David Sanders, owner of Lump's Center Street Deli in Bethlehem, relies on lottery sales for at least half his income. He expects that to change overnight, when casino gambling begins, especially if a slots parlor is placed in south Bethlehem on the former Bethlehem Steel site. Las Vegas Sands is proposing a casino with 3,000 slot machines less than two miles from Sanders' doorstep. The Sands is competing with similar plans in Allentown, the Poconos, Limerick Township and the Gettysburg area for two open slots licenses to be awarded by the state. Sanders didn't have to look beyond his lottery line to back up his theory. Ruth Wolfe, 75, of Bethlehem, has been one of Sanders' most faithful customers. She's spent about $20 a day on lottery tickets for more than two decades. When the casino comes, she'll continue to gamble $20 a day, but not all of it is going to be at the deli. If I can get transportation to the casino, I'm going to go, Wolfe said. But I'm no dummy. I only have so much money, so I'm going to have to split up my lottery money. I'll still play lottery, just not as much. Sanders said she won't be alone. I don't think I'm going to lose sales, I know I'm going to lose sales, Sanders said. My biggest customers are seniors who really can't afford to go to Atlantic City. But you can bet they'll be at the casino here. It's going to hurt, but we'll figure out a way to adjust. Bruce Barron, who leads the Pittsburgh-based gambling opposition group No Dice, is worried about what that adjustment will mean. Fourteen casinos with as many as 61,000 slot machines statewide is bad enough, he said. But if legislators decide to allow the lottery to make up its losses with new games such as keno, the way other states have, the negative impact of Pennsylvania's gambling law will only be magnified. When our little groundhog gets competition, it's going to mean he's got to work harder, Barron said, referring to the Pennsylvania Lottery's marketing mascot. This will only create new forms of gambling beyond the casinos. The lottery isn't going to sit still and lose revenues. Missouri Lottery sales flattened in the mid-1990s when casino gambling arrived in Missouri. After a five-year lull, the lottery went right back to posting records, and Gonder believes it has the casinos to thank for that. They did so much marketing and advertising that it made gambling — all gambling — more acceptable, Gonder said. Now it's hard to find anywhere in the state where gambling isn't going on. People, in general are now spending more to gamble, and some of that is coming to the lottery.